


Learn About You

by QuillMind



Category: Drifters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Elf Culture & Customs, F/M, Fantasy, Fluff, Other, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-27
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-09-12 14:49:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9077302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuillMind/pseuds/QuillMind
Summary: You found the history and culture of elves to be fascinating.  Most of all, because it was a part of the one you loved.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Fluff times with elves! 
> 
> Admittedly, there is a lot of made-up stuff and fictional vocabulary in this story, so I hope it doesn't turn anyone off too much.

When you had first arrived in this brand new world, you had struggled to understand the reason why. 

You were not a fighter, not by a long stretch.  You did not have Yoichi's skill with a bow, Nobunaga's shrewdness and tactical mind, nor Toyohisa's talent for killing.  So what was there? 

It had taken some time to figure out.  When you encountered the plight of the elves, some clarity began to appear.

Just as they were depicted in the books, movies and games that you'd consumed, these elves were originally hunters, living in harmony with the forests that provided them everything they needed.  Being herded into dusty huts and forced to a life of farming, forbidden from entering the woods that was as close as their own blood was a cruel act.  It _hurt_ them. 

Once Toyohisa had killed the local lord and liberated the elves, you observed the long-eared ones' shift in behaviour.  Their brow-beaten dullness wore away to reveal the beautiful, elegant and proud dispositions that they were known for.  With their village prisons razed to the ground, the elves could live in the forests again, bringing smiles to faces that had not made such movements in years, if not decades. 

Under Yoichi's leadership, the elves became an army of archers for the Drifters to command.  But honestly, if Yoichi and Nobunaga hadn't brought it up first, the elves would have, as they yearned to take back the lives that had been crushed under Orte.

This was where you got your idea.  You spoke with Shara, the older brother of Mark and Marsha, and with his help gathered the most senior elves from each of the villages that had been freed.  Even though the most ancient of them did not look older than eighty or so, you knew that in reality they had centuries under their belts. 

After an introduction, you proceeded to ask the elders a variety of questions that at first seemed trivial.  Did the elves have any special traditions with their bows?  Were there coming-of-age rituals?  Did they have sacred observations, or something similar?  Did they dance?  What did their music sound like?  What kind of stories would they tell their children? 

The answers came slowly and hesitantly at first, as the elders were all puzzled as to why an outsider, a human, would be asking these things.  But in going through their recollections, momentum built and their eyes lit up with sparks from retrieving a long-forgotten treasure.  Each elder went on as long as their voices held up, struggling to get out every shred of history they knew of. 

Each elf would each make their own bows as a personal statement, taking great care in selecting the right type of wood, the right bowstring, and making their own arrowheads.  Hunting was a sacred tradition, but unlike humans that did it for sport, elves paid respect to their prey and made sure to use every part of the animals they killed.  Full moons were the best times for hunting, while new moons and the rarer but more ominous blood moons were bad luck, so elves did not venture out as much on those nights.  Children and those that were too old to hunt foraged for berries, edible plants, medicinal herbs, and fallen feathers to use as fletching. 

Each clan had a wisened matriarch that was called the greenwife, who served as the resident doctor and mystic.  Whenever an elf was about to give birth, the greenwife would be there to assist her and give blessings to the newborn and mother.  The birth rate among elves was quite low, so each instance was a cause for great celebration in the entire clan.  Pregnant women were treated like queens and indicated their status with a bright blue ribbon tied around their upper arm.  This way, no matter where they were, no matter whatever grievances another individual or clan might have, the woman was assured of her safety.  Any elf that dared to harm a female with child was signing his own death warrant. 

Music was greatly valued in elven society.  Their songs were quite unlike the boisterous and raunchy ale-fueled chants of the dwarfs, instead being smooth and melodic, with sounds that could never come from a human's vocal chords.  Older legends spoke of an elven bard who had prevented a war between clans by singing a song so beautiful that all who heard it fell to their knees and wept. 

From then on, the elves became increasingly animated and enthusiastic, throwing themselves into archery and with unparalleled zeal and re-familiarizing themselves with the secrets of the forest.  With every waking hour, they chattered about stories and traditions that were passed down from their ancestors, sharing with other families, other clans, their culture that had been on the verge of being erased. 

Nobunaga was impressed that you had found a way to make more willing allies out of the elves, as well as indebting them to the Drifters.  He had given you a smarmy grin and commented that it was the sort of idea that he would have come up with, though that didn't feel like much of a compliment to you. 

Yoichi and Toyohisa's praises were more welcome, with the former expressing appreciation that the elves were quickly improving as ranged fighters, and the latter saying he was glad that you had found a niche to excel in. 

The three otherworldly men were revered for their prowess on the battlefield, but in some ways, you had come to be in higher esteem in the elves' eyes.  In dusting off their history and culture, you had reassured their existence as a unique group of people, not just faceless underlings for Orte to use and abuse. 

Whereas the three male Drifters represented bloodshed and warfare, you stood for the preservation of life. 

A clear afternoon had led you to wandering through the forest in search of some wildflowers and herbs that could be used to make medicine.  An assault was about to be launched on a town that held the elves of the Rauta clan in servitude, so preparations were necessary for battle injuries. 

Though more often than not, first aid was needed by frontline fighter Toyohisa rather than the elven archers that stayed at safe distances. 

"You shouldn't be out here alone." 

You nearly dropped your basket as you spun around. 

"Shara!" you exclaimed, sighing with relief.  "You know, sometimes that elven knack for silent stalking is damn annoying."  You shook your head admonishingly, but your tone was light.

To your surprise, the elf looked sheepish.  "I'm sorry."  It hadn't been his intention to sneak up on you; he was still not used to how much less sensitive humans' hearing was.  "What are you up to?"

"Ah," you said, holding out your basket that already had a decent yield, "looking for... milk blossoms, kryktar, bona, peacegrass, shreenaska, aaaaand rovulo, was it?"

"Ruvoll," Shara corrected.  In the past, he had been annoyed when humans mispronounced elven words.  With you, he found it curiously charming. 

"Ruvoll, right," you nodded firmly and mouthed the word a few more times to remember it.  "Good for... fevers and headaches, right?" 

"Yes.  We can eat it fresh, but I think it's best in tea.  It's milder that way." 

"I hope it'll help.  I couldn't find very much." 

"It's not really the season, so you shouldn't worry." 

"Oh, okay." 

The area of the forest that you stood in was heavily shaded with a canopy of ancient trees, leaving scattered stalks of sunlight to filter through and illuminate the floor with a gentle glow.  The thick, cushy carpet of moss was spotted with white and pink foam flowers that grew in bubbly clusters.  It was the kind of place elves loved and spent every day in before they had been ripped away to live in dark and dirty houses and tend to fields. 

Now you stood in it, and the sight left Shara at a loss for words. 

You still had on those odd, fitted pants called "jeans," but were currently barefoot, no doubt enjoying the feel of walking on the soft moss.  You wore a simple tunic that had been unevenly coloured with blue dye made from star beetle shells.  Shara remembered that day very well, with you frowning in concentration as you tried to get the tunic a beautiful indigo like the other elven women did, not noticing the smudge of dye on your cheek.  On your wrists were woven bracelets with acorn beads that you'd made with the children; they were supposed to give the wearer a long and healthy life. 

"Will you tell me about your people?" he asked gently. 

You blinked under his scrutiny, then laughed to hide the blush that you could feel was rushing to your cheeks. 

"Hmm, where to begin?" you said, shaking your basket of herbs.  "There are so many countries, so many different people in my world, and they all have long histories."

"Tell me about yours first." 

It had been a while since you thought about home.  It had been the first time since anyone had asked you something personal, that didn't benefit them in some self-serving way. 

"Well... There was no war where I grew up--I mean, there are, but they were always so far away from me.  I had a family, same as any other, I went to school, thought about traveling after graduation, hoping maybe if I did that I'd figure out what I wanted to do..." 

Shara wasn't sure what "graduation" meant, but he would ask you to clarify that for him another time. 

"And... Did you have someone special?  Someone you love?" 

You paused, then bit your lip.  "No, never," you said quietly.  "Not there, anyway."

Shara's azure eyes went round and his lips unconsciously parted.

 _Shit._  Did you really just say that?  The parts of the basket you were holding became hot under your tight grip.   

Time stood still besides the ghost of a breeze floating through the forest.  It lifted Shara's hair as if lovingly caressing those golden strands that surpassed any model's that you'd seen in shampoo commercials.  All of the elves were beautiful creatures, to the extent that Toyohisa sometimes mistook one for another, but in your eyes, Shara stood out easily.  Much like the weapons that his people favoured, he was sleek and sharp and precise in build and movement. 

"When you made those jrippa bands," Shara said, pointing to your bracelets, "did they tell you about the malejrippa as well?" 

You shook your head dumbly, as your attention was taken by your racing heart. 

Shara stepped forward until he was quite close.  "Malejrippa are... the grown-up version of the children's bands.  They can take weeks to make, depending on how committed the elf is to the design and craftsmanship." 

Reaching into his pocket, aware of the numbness in his limbs, Shara pulled something out and held it for you to see.  It was a handmade necklace, intricately detailed with semi-precious stones, carved wooden beads and hollowed seeds, hanging from a multi-coloured length of braided fibers.  Even Toyohisa would be able to see the care and love that went into making it. 

"It's beautiful," you said admiringly.  "What are they for?  Are they amulets as well?"

Shara swallowed, but was having trouble getting the lump unstuck from his throat.  "Not exactly.  Elves give them to the one they want to devote their life to.  Like this." 

You held your breath as he leaned in to place his arms on your shoulders, each hand holding an end of the malejrippa.  His scent was in your nose--earth and grass and sunshine.  The beads of the necklace swayed against your collarbones. 

For the first week, Shara had been able to brush off the other elves' probing questions about what he was working on, but eventually his project's demands on his time became impossible to ignore, and he was forced to reveal his gathered malejrippa pieces, and who they were intended for. 

As he'd expected, his secret was met with uncomfortable silence and wary glances from his clan members.  It was true that you had established yourself as trustworthy and no enemy of the elves, but to be a lover of one?  Frankly... it just wasn't done. 

Before meeting you, Shara would have agreed with his clan.  Humans were the arrogant race that had subjugated his species and so many others.  They could not hear the voices of the forest, had no sense of what the wind could tell them about lands that were miles away, could not see animals as anything besides game or trophies.  Not to mention their weirdly tiny ears, worlds apart from their long and graceful ones, and their pathetically short life span. 

Furthermore, you were not even a human of this world, hailing from somewhere, some _time_ , that no elf nor Drifter had ever seen. 

He might have almost wondered if something was wrong with him. 

But then he'd see your face, watch you run and play with Mark and Marsha like a child one moment and then flare with anger and outrage at Orte's treatment of demihumans, and decided it was more wrong to _not_ be drawn to you.

Locking your gaze with his, Shara's tone became weighted with serious emotion.  "Then the male says, 'you already have my heart, so I give you the rest of me.  Will you accept all that I am?'" 

You felt faint.  Thoughts swarmed your mind like wasps, each one demanding attention. 

_You're from different worlds.  You might get to go back home one day--what happens then?_

_You're two different species.  Would you be able to have children?  Does he want children?  Do you?_

_That's all assuming you even last that long.  He's a gorgeous elf, and you're... you.  Wouldn't you bore him?  Slow him down considering you can't fight?_

_He'll still be young and fit when you're old and bent.  What kind of relationship would that--_

"Yes." 

That single word banished all other worries from your head. 

The blond elf smiled widely, and let out a short gasp of a laugh that took all of his tense solemnity.  "That's a relief." 

You smiled too, and felt a bit of wetness in your eyes.  As far as admissions of affection went, that was... surprisingly easy--in a world where everything else was chaotic. 

"So... after the other person says 'yes,' then what do you do?" 

Lithe, trim arms slid over your shoulders to tie the malejrippa around your neck, and you were a little embarrassed to wish your tunic weren't obstructing you from feeling Shara's skin.  A snug knot was tied, and the hands left your body. 

You examined the malejrippa close up, turning the beads and stones over between your fingers.  Now it made sense why Shara had been so scarce these past several weeks.  A ticklish joy fizzled inside of you like soda. 

"And then what happens?" you asked. 

Shara blushed and scratched his head.  "Ah, well, that's it, really..." 

"Can I show you what my people would do?"

"Oh, all right--" 

Flowers and herbs puffed like confetti as you dropped the basket to the mossy ground.  With a speed that would make Yoichi proud, you leapt at Shara to grab hold of him and kiss his mouth.  He was unsure and shocked, judging by the stilted movements of his lips, but he was a fast learner, and soon pushed back, wrapping his arms around you.  You hummed happily and reciprocated. 

Both of your faces were flushed when you pulled apart, but there was no discomfort in the warmth.  A carefree, teenage elation rushed through your veins, and you giggled. 

"I like what your people do," Shara said as he touched his forehead to yours. 

"We do other things, too." 

A blond eyebrow arched up.  "Do you, now?" 

"Yes," you grinned while placing your palms on his chest.  "I'll teach you.  But I still want to keep learning about you."

"I'm over a century old," Shara reminded you.  "It would take a while to cover everything." 

"I'm not going anywhere."

This time, he was the one to kiss you. 

You loved Shara, and you wanted to be with him.

That was more than enough of a reason for you to be here. 


End file.
